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In New Testament studies, the great Albert Schweitzer towers over everything. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, was a scholar of classical music, spent years as a medical missionary in Africa, and completely reshaped New Testament theology in ways that sent ripples through every tradition. Those that know Schweitzer's work often site him as an influence, and those that do not know his work are influenced by it in ways they do not realize. With just a handful of books, he completely shifted conversations among both scholars and churchmen as to Paul's theology, the historical Jesus, and Jesus' eschatological focus. In some ways, Schweitzer followed Weiss and Wrede in these things, but his work has, in many ways, been more influential.

The thing is, Schweitzer changed theology by challenging everyone. The liberals, the conservatives, he had an ability to look for the holes in the thinking from all sides. Even if one disagreed, it has become quite difficult to consider the history of research on important NT topics without dealing with Schweitzer.

I read his work for its influence, and there can be no question that he was a man of great insight and confidence in his writing. I do not always find Schweitzer's writing style to be clear, and I often find that he insists things without doing much actual exegesis. It is evident that he thought things through, but it seems he couldn't always be bothered to work through issues for his readers. We are expected to read and think "I'm sure he's right about that." But with each of his books, I also walk away shaken by some new thought (new for me; 100 years old for Schweitzer!). This work deals with Jesus' kingdom teaching, positing that it had an entirely eschatological flavor. His thoughts on the futuristic culmination of Jesus' messianism is an important insight to consider. If for no other reason, his towering influence on NT studies means his work is required reading for anyone interested in the field.

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Albert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, was an Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. He was born in Kaisersberg in Alsace-Lorraine, a Germanophone region which the German Empire returned to France after World War I. Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of historical Jesus current at his time and the traditional Christian view, depicting a Jesus who expected the imminent end of the world. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of "reverence for life", expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa.